What Was The Last Movie You Watched?

[vitanola]

"The King Of Jazz"

Paul Whiteman's Orchestra, Bing & the Rhythem Boys, John Boles, Venuti & Lang, the Russel Market Girls and two strip Technicolor. What's not to like?

[C44Antelope]

The Guns of Navarone
The aging mountaineer Gregory Peck who hasn't climbed in 5 years,
The demolitions expert David Niven who is sick of war and killing,
The team leader Anthony Quayle who knows the mission must succeed,
and the tortured Anthony Quinn who vows to kill Gregory Peck as soon as the war is over (which is of course the reason Peck stared in "MacArthur");
plus a few others,
a traitor,
some Greek resistance fighters,
a Greek wedding party,
James Robertson Justice,
and a bunch of Nazis... Now there's a movie!

And to quote John Candy and Joe Flaherty from the "Farm Film Report" on the old SCTV show... "It blowed up real good."

[BladeOfAnduril]

Hobo with a Shotgun.... oh how I wish I could have that hour and a half back... such a worthless, horrible excuse for a film.

[Feraud]

Well, her husband had just been involved in a sexual scandal, so in a way Astor was considered "hot" property at the time. That quote you mentioned is a good one. Lorre's tirade against Greenstreet is also memorable.

Casting based on celebrity drama...It's good to see some things never change.
As much I as enjoy Huston's film I hate the female casting and how the studio removed any sexuality from his version. The femme fatale is the lynchpin for the story and Huston's version has minimal sexual attraction between the men and women. The studio barely allowed a dull, rote idea of sexual attraction in Huston's version. It undermines the logic of the film, particularly Spade's big speech to Brigid at the end of the film.

The female roles are the weak link of the Huston version yet a strong point in the 1931 film. The 1931 Maltese Falcon cast Bebe Daniels as Ruth Wonderly, Una Merkel as Effie, and Thelma Todd (yowza!) as Iva Archer. In this case it is not hard at all to understand why Spade fell for Iva with Thelma Todd is filling the shoes! Compared to Thelma Todd, Gladys George looks positively grandmotherly in Huston's film. Are we expected to believe Spade went behind his friend's back for this dame? Not likely! I can see how Bebe Daniels might cause a guy to break a few laws to help her.

[Neophyte]

Hobo with a Shotgun.... oh how I wish I could have that hour and a half back... such a worthless, horrible excuse for a film.

I rather enjoyed it, but it certainly did not retain the grindhouse character of the original trailer that inspired it.

[Widebrim]

The female roles are the weak link of the Huston version yet a strong point in the 1931 film. The 1931 Maltese Falcon cast Bebe Daniels as Ruth Wonderly, Una Merkel as Effie, and Thelma Todd (yowza!) as Iva Archer. In this case it is not hard at all to understand why Spade fell for Iva with Thelma Todd is filling the shoes! Compared to Thelma Todd, Gladys George looks positively grandmotherly in Huston's film. Are we expected to believe Spade went behind his friend's back for this dame? Not likely! I can see how Bebe Daniels might cause a guy to break a few laws to help her.

Good point, especially about Todd compared with George; the latter is kind of "plain" looking. The male cast in Maltese Falcon, though, is superb.

[Feraud]

The male cast in Huston's Falcon is superb. Memorable performances all around!

[Worf]

Hobo with a Shotgun.... oh how I wish I could have that hour and a half back... such a worthless, horrible excuse for a film.

Mwa ha ha ha ha... Sorry man, wish I could'a warned you about that one. Pretty bad... pretty dang bad.

Worf

[LizzieMaine]

"The King Of Jazz"

Paul Whiteman's Orchestra, Bing & the Rhythem Boys, John Boles, Venuti & Lang, the Russel Market Girls and two strip Technicolor. What's not to like?

And don't forget the guy with the bicycle pump. They couldn't get Bix, but that guy almost makes up for the loss.

[Chasseur]

Maltese Falcon. I love this movie for a dozen reasons, Ward Bond for one. "When you're slapped, you'll take it and like it" is another... But when the secretary says Mary Astor is a knock out, I think it's creative license. She's not a mud fence, but "knock out"? C'mon now.

Yes that has always bothered me in the back of my mind while watching the film. As Feraud was saying in his response I need to go back and watch the 1931 version again.